Boston Red Sox: Stellar week for J.D. Martinez and Christian Vazquez
Struggles at the plate highlighted the first weekend of the 2021 season for the Boston Red Sox.
Those misfortunes improved enough for the Red Sox to pick up wins in four straight games. The blazing starts for J.D. Martinez and Christian Vazquez are owed many thanks for that.
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For Vazquez, it’s the kind of production he’s been doing consistently for years now. And for Martinez, it’s a return to form that is one step closer to putting his 2020 season completely in the past.
Martinez has been simply locked in through the season’s first week. Impressive as his .433 batting average is, it’s even more impressive in how he’s doing it.
A seven-game hitting streak to begin the season is always a plus, but it’s even better when each game has seen Martinez collect an extra-base hit. Martinez already has seven doubles to his credit, plus two home runs, and his 12 RBI ranks third in the American League.
Five of the seven games have been multi-hit games for Martinez.
Martinez has scored six runs and also an OPS of 1.335. He swatted a walk-off double in Tuesday’s victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.
Hot on the tail of Martinez in OPS is Vazquez with a 1.333. In seven games, Vazquez is batting .458 and has four multi-hit games. Twice he has collected three hits, including Thursday’s 7-3 victory that saw the return of pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez.
Vazquez has two home runs, including the game-tying shot in Tuesday’s extra innings victory.
Martinez and Vazquez have been doing the heavy lifting. Others are starting to come around, with Xander Bogaerts now hitting .375 and Rafael Devers hitting his first home run of the season on Thursday. Excellent things are on the horizon if these four are producing. When the rest of the lineup catches up as well, this team could easily put up six runs per game.
To go along with solid pitching — mostly — Boston is sitting in good shape after week 1.
Boston Red Sox: Upcoming week
After declaring the season over after the first weekend immediately followed by declaring the Red Sox the hottest team in baseball, it’s already been a roller coaster ride.
Week two has the Red Sox on the road, with the team also getting out of the American League East for the first time in 2021.
The team got some rest on Friday, and now has two games with the Orioles to close out that series. Then it’s on to face the Minnesota Twins for four straight.
Boston and Minnesota did not play in the abbreviated 2020 season. Back in 2019, the teams split six games. The Twins won 101 games that season and hit a league-high 307 home runs. (They’ve hit eight so far this year, three off the bat of Nelson Cruz.)
The Red Sox managed to split with Minnesota in 2019 despite Martinez, Vazquez, Devers, and Bogaerts not really producing. The quartet had only 8 extra-base hits in a combined 99 at-bats, with the only home run coming off the bat of Devers.
Boston will avoid John Means against the Orioles this time around. Means allowed only one hit in seven innings against the Red Sox on Opening Day.
Saturday is a key game to pay attention to, as Garrett Richards looks to bounce back from a lackluster Boston debut. Richards allowed seven hits and six runs in only two innings against the Orioles.
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Another key matchup is on Wednesday when Jose Berrios is the tentative starter for the Twins. Berrios is already 2-0 on the season with a 1.54 ERA and 20 K’s.